Category Archives: World News

Peru’s president dissolves congress hours before impeachment vote

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Announcement by Pedro Castillo prompted mass resignations and accusations of a coup d’état

Peru’s President Pedro Castillo has announced the immediate dissolution of congress and the installation of a “government of exception” to rule by decree until new legislative elections – just hours before he was due to face an impeachment vote in a dramatic escalation of his fight with the opposition-led chamber.

The announcement on Wednesday was the latest dramatic twist in Castillo’s tumultuous 17 months in power which has already seen five cabinets, six criminal investigations and two failed attempts to impeach him.

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Vladimir Putin says Russia’s war in Ukraine could be ‘long-term process’

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President says potential of nuclear war more likely but Russia has ‘not gone crazy’ and will not use nuclear weapons first

Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia’s war in Ukraine could turn into a “long-term process” as he sought to defend an invasion in which Russian troops have been forced to retreat and even airbases deep inside Russia have come under attack.

Speaking to members of his personal human rights council on Wednesday, Putin claimed that Russia would not use nuclear weapons first in any conflict, denied that Russian troops were deserting en masse from the field of battle, and claimed he would not need to mobilise more troops, a process that has caused considerable upheaval in Russia.

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Reichsbürger: the German conspiracy theorists at heart of alleged coup plot

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Despite description of alleged plotters by prosecutors as a ‘motley crew’, the threat was considered very real

At 6am on Wednesday, German special forces stormed a house in the Berlin lakeside villa quarter of Wannsee and arrested a former MP of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. Three minutes later, they entered the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge in Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia. Simultaneous raids took place in 30 other locations, including a car repair shop and a carpenters’ studio, as well as in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel and the Italian city of Perugia.

Twenty-five people were arrested, and by lunchtime eight of them were in police custody, among them a serving soldier of the elite KSK unit, a lawyer, a pilot, a gourmet chef and a prince, the alleged ringleader who had led the plans to overthrow the German state and replace it with a “monarchistic order”.

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Canada police say they can’t recover bodies of murdered Indigenous women

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Family ‘heartbroken’ and angry by decision not to search landfill after four women were believed to have been killed by serial killer

Police in Canada have said they don’t have the resources to search a landfill to recover the bodies of two Indigenous women murdered by an alleged serial killer – a decision that has left the daughters of one victim “heartbroken” and angry.

Last week, police in Winnipeg announced that four Indigenous women – Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and a fourth woman who they had not identified – were believed to have been killed by an alleged serial killer. Winnipeg police have charged Jeremy Skibicki in their deaths.

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Cristina Fernández may not go to jail but verdict upends Argentina’s politics

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The powerful – and polarising – vice-president was sentenced to six years for fraud and now will not seek the presidency next year

For decades, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner dominated Argentina’s political landscape: as a senator, first lady, president and then vice-president. But on Tuesday she was sentenced to six years in prison in a verdict, which if upheld on appeal, will also ban her from holding public office for the rest of her life.

Fernández immediately announced that she would not run for president, or any other kind of elected office, in the 2023 elections. The court’s ruling appeared to have abruptly sidelined the country’s most powerful – and most polarising – politician since Juan and Eva Perón, leaving many Argentinians wondering: what will come next?

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin hints at ‘long’ conflict and says risk of nuclear war is on the rise – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine coverage here

More now on Europe’s energy crisis, via AFP:

Sky-high energy prices have caused numerous factories, particularly in Germany’s chemicals sector, which was highly dependent upon cheap Russian gas, to halt operations. But European nations were able to fill their gas reservoirs and no one has been cut off yet.

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‘They want to kill us’: mayor Vitali Klitschko plans for the worst as Russia tries to freeze Kyiv

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Klitschko says capital taking no chances, working day and night readying for critical strike on power supplies

In his office in Kyiv’s city hall, mayor Vitali Klitschko is planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

The previous day, in the middle of the sixth mass Russian missile strike against Ukrainian cities that had sent Kyiv’s resident to the bomb shelters and metro stations, no rockets had made it through to hit the capital.

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Albanian children facing racist bullying due to UK asylum row, says envoy

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Albanian ambassador to UK calls for end to ‘campaign of discrimination’ amid debate over small boat arrivals

Albanian children are being subjected to racist bullying in UK schools because of the debate surrounding arrivals by small boats, the country’s ambassador in London has said.

Qirjako Qirko spoke out after Albanians were singled out by ministers and sections of the media during the recent rise in the number of his country’s citizens travelling across the Channel to claim asylum in the UK.

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Northern Ireland can create abortion clinic buffer zones, supreme court rules

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Unanimous judgment in UK’s highest court means Stormont assembly can proceed with abortion services bill

The Northern Ireland assembly can legislate to create buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect users and staff, the UK’s highest court has ruled.

The supreme court’s unanimous judgment means the assembly can proceed with the abortion services (safe access zones) (Northern Ireland) bill, which criminalises people who enter the specified areas and influence people attending clinics.

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Ukraine calls on western allies to boycott Russian culture

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Minister defends step in ‘civilisational battle’ but says it would not amount to ‘cancelling Tchaikovsky’

Ukraine’s culture minister has called on the country’s western allies to boycott Russian culture, urging a halt to performances of the music of Tchaikovsky and other Russian composers until the end of the war.

Writing in the Guardian, Oleksandr Tkachenko argues that such a “cultural boycott” would not amount to “cancelling Tchaikovsky”, but would be “pausing the performance of his works until Russia ceases its bloody invasion”.

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German police raids target far-right extremists ‘seeking to overthrow state’

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Thousands of officers search 130 sites across country in operation against Reich Citizens plotters

Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been detained in Germany on suspicion of a terrorist plan to overthrow the state and renegotiate the country’s post-second world war settlement.

Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning in connection with the far-right ring.

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Health officials gain guardianship of baby whose parents refused ‘vaccinated blood’ transfusion

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New Zealand high court case has become a focus of protests from anti-vaxxers

A New Zealand high court judge has ruled in favour of health authorities who sought guardianship of a baby boy after his parents refused to consent to a transfusion of “vaccinated blood” in a life-saving operation.

The landmark decision, delivered on Thursday, is expected to have wide-ranging ramifications and has become a focus of protests for anti-vaxxers who held demonstrations outside the courtroom.

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Indonesia’s sex ‘morality’ laws are just one part of a broader, chilling crackdown on dissent

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Analysis: the moralistic aspects of the new criminal code risk obscuring wider concerns about a stifling of protest and criticism of the state

Indonesia’s new criminal code limits the right to protest and participate in the public sphere, threatens the freedom of women and LGBTQ people and represents a trend of vague or “rubber” laws that are open to broad interpretation and selective implementation, experts have warned.

With provisions restoring a ban on insulting the president, state institutions and state ideology, as well as extramarital and premarital sex, the code will come into effect within three years, following Indonesia’s 2024 elections. Insults to a sitting president can lead to up to three years in jail.

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Saudi Arabia readies full state pageantry for Xi Jinping visit

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Chinese president’s three-day trip to Riyadh will lead to a ‘strategic agreement’ between the authoritarian powers

Xi Jinping will arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday on a long awaited visit to a regional ally that has readied full state pageantry and a round of agreements likely to cement ties between China and Saudi Arabia – and deepen alarm in Washington.

China’s president will meet more than 30 heads of state and business leaders during his three-day visit to the Saudi capital, which is set to lead to a “strategic agreement” between the authoritarian powers. The trip is the culmination of decades of cooperation once based on oil sales, which has grown into bilateral trade of close to $90bn a year.

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Tokyo Olympics bribery scandal threatens to derail Winter Games bid

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Japanese official says corruption claims could damage Sapporo’s chances of hosting 2030 event

More than a year after the Tokyo Olympics were held in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, their legacy has been overshadowed by a bribery scandal that threatens to derail a bid by another Japanese city to host the Winter Games.

This summer, as officials in Sapporo, on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, promoted their bid for the 2030 Games, police arrested Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympics executive, on suspicion of taking bribes in return for helping companies become official sponsors for last year’s event.

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Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak agree to increase gas exports from US to UK

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Leaders announce partnership to reduce global dependence on Russian energy

Joe Biden has agreed a deal to ramp up gas exports from the US to the UK as part of a joint effort to cut bills and limit Russia’s impact on western energy supplies.

Sunak and Biden announced an “energy security and affordability partnership” and set up a joint action group, led by Westminster and White House officials, with the aim of reducing global dependence on Russian energy.

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Delighted Morocco fans dance in the streets of London after World Cup win

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Crowds mass joyfully in centre of capital after 3-0 victory on penalties against Spain puts team in quarter-finals

Elated Morocco fans celebrated on the streets of London on Tuesday night following their team’s triumph over Spain in the last 16 of the World Cup.

Footage showed crowds of people around Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus and Edgware Road chanting, dancing and waving Moroccan flags after the result.

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US judge dismisses case against Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing

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Judge says Mohammed bin Salman entitled to sovereign immunity despite ‘credible allegations’ of involvement in journalist’s murder

A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman that claimed he conspired to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the crown prince was entitled to sovereign immunity despite “credible allegations” that he was involved in the murder.

Judge John Bates, a US district court judge with a long history of presiding over cases involving national security, acknowledged “uneasiness” in making the decision, but said that his hands were in effect tied by the Biden administration’s recent recommendation that Prince Mohammed be given immunity.

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Dutch king commissions research into royal role in colonialism

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Three-year investigation for King Willem-Alexander will span period from late 16th century until present

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has commissioned independent research into the role of the royal family in the country’s colonial past, the Dutch government’s information service (RVD) has announced.

Three Dutch historians and a human rights expert will carry out the investigation, which is set to take three years and will span the period from the late 16th century until the “post-colonial” present, the RVD said, without elaborating on the details.

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Argentina’s Cristina Fernández sentenced to six years in $1bn fraud case

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Vice-president and former president also given lifelong ban on holding public office after being found guilty

Argentina’s vice-president and former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has been sentenced to six years in prison and given a lifelong ban on holding public office after being found guilty in a $1bn fraud case related to public works.

Fernández de Kirchner – who was president of Argentina for two terms between 2007 and 2015 – was found guilty of fraud on Tuesday, though she is unlikely to serve any prison time soon as she has immunity due to her government roles and is expected to launch a lengthy appeals process that could take years.

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